Syria’s president decreed a vote this month on a new
constitution that would effectively end nearly 50 years of single party
rule, state media said, as troops reportedly stormed centres of dissent.

***

Bashar al-Assad called the ballot for February 26, in a move clearly
aimed at placating growing global outrage over the bloodshed.

Under the newly proposed charter, freedom is “a sacred right” and
“the people will govern the people” in a multi-party democratic system,
state television said.

***

The new constitution also … prohibits parties based on religion.

Assad, who in April lifted a state of emergency in force since 1963,
when his Baath Party took power, has made repeated promises of reforms
that have failed to materialise since a popular uprising erupted on
March 15.

The embattled president, who succeeded his late father Hafez in 2000,
has said the constitution would usher in a “new era” for Syria, SANA
state news agency reported.

This is what the U.S. and its allies have said that they want.

But – given that the U.S. government has been consistently planning regime change in Syria for 20 years (and dreamed of regime change for 50 years), and that the U.S., Britain, Qatar and other countries have already started a covert war in Syria – it is uncertain whether democratic elections and a new constitution can avoid a Syrian war involving the West.

India has become one of Iran’s most important trading partners, and has been increasing its ties to Iran since sanctions have been imposed by the West. Indeed, India has agreed to pay for Iranian oil with gold. See this, this , this and this.

Why would Iran carry out a terror attack on one of its most important
trading partners … one which has agreed to help help Iran escape from
sanctions?

This is especially true with regard to India and Thailand. Both Asian
countries have become major trading partners with Tehran in recent
years. India, along with China, is Iran’s biggest customer for its vital
oil industry.

Thailand is of growing importance as a trading partner with Iran for
oil, mining, heavy industry, services, technology and agriculture
especially after both countries set up a joint business council five
years ago.

For Iran to carry out such attacks, as is being claimed, would be
like shooting itself in the foot, particularly because both Asian
countries have refused to join in the US-led campaign to isolate Iran
economically and diplomatically.

Put the other way round, it is much more in the interest of
Washington and Israel to destabilize relations between Iran and its
Asian partners. The repercussions from the blasts in India would appear
to be having that desired effect.

Take this Reuters reports: Up to now India has not gone along with
new financial sanctions imposed by the United States and European Union
to punish Iran over its disputed nuclear programme. Instead, New Delhi
has come up with elaborate trade and barter arrangements to pay for oil
supplies. However, the president of the All India Rice Exporters’
Association said Monday’s attack on the wife of an Israeli diplomat in
the Indian capital will damage trade with Iran and may complicate
efforts to resolve an impasse over Iranian defaults on payments for rice
imports worth around $150 million. “The attack and its political
fallout have clearly vitiated the atmosphere. Traders who were already
losing money due to payment defaults will be extremely wary of
continuing their trade with buyers in Iran,” Vijay Setia told Reuters.

So add it up. Bomb teams with proven US/Israeli assassination
expertise and methodology; target countries that are major Iranian
partners; desired effect of further isolating Iran internationally; and,
to cap it all, a long sought-after pretext for Israel to attack Iran
with America’s blessing.

When logic and facts coincide like this, it’s usually more prudent to engage in reason than to indulge in lurid claims.

Let’s assume that sections of the military and security
apparatus in Iran are responsible for the string of bombings in Georgia,
Thailand and India. What would be the motive? The argument that Iran is retaliating for the murder of five civilian nuclear scientists in Iran is not plausible. If
Iran wanted to target Israeli interests, it has other means at its
disposal. It is hard to imagine that the Iranian government would send
Iranian operatives to friendly countries, completely equipped with
Iranian money and passports – making the case against them as obvious as
possible.

If the Iranian Revolutionary Guards are as professional, highly
trained and politically savvy as we have been told repeatedly by Israeli
politicians themselves, if they have successfully trained and equipped
the cadres of Hezbollah and other movements with paramilitary wings in
the region, then why would they launch such a clumsy and self-defeating
operation?

And why India, Georgia and Thailand, three countries that
Iran has had cordial relations with during a period when Iran is facing
increasing sanctions spearheaded by the United States? A few
days ago, India agreed a rupee-based oil and gas deal with Iran and
resisted US pressures to join the western boycott of the Iranian energy
sector. As a net importer of 12% of Iranian oil, India’s total trade
with Iran amounted to $13.67bn in 2010-2011. What would be the motive for damaging relations with one of Iran’s major trading partners and regional heavyweights?

For Iran it doesn’t make sense to risk alienating India by launching
an assassination attempt in the capital of the country. Similarly, Iran
has good economic and political relations with Georgia and Thailand. Why
would the leadership in Tehran risk a major crisis with these countries
during this sensitive period when IAEA inspectors are moving in and out
of Iran to investigate the country’s nuclear programme?

India has suffered from both Hindu and Muslim terrorist
groups. So the attack on an automobile outside the Israeli embassy in
New Delhi could easily have been carried out by an Indian group.
Israel’s government, a master of spin and propaganda, immediately blamed
the bombing on Iran and Hizbullah. But there is no evidence for this
cynical allegation, which makes no sense. India is Iran’s economic lifeline, and Tehran would not likely risk such an operation at this time.

India gets 12% of its oil from Iran and sees an $8 billion annual
export opportunity in filling the trade vacuum left by unilateral US and
European boycotts of Iran. Contrary to a bad Reuters article, Indian officials denied Tuesday that the bombing would affect trade ties. (Logical because no evidence points to Iran.)

Indian investigators are first rate. Based on the modus operandi, their initial thesis is that the attack was the work of the “Indian Mujahidin” group.
It had used a similar remote controlled sticky bomb, placed by a
motorcyclist, in an attack on Taiwanese tourists outside the Jama Masjid
cathedral mosque in 2010. IM is a Sunni group, not connected to Iran,
and doesn’t like Shiite Muslims (Iranians are Shiites). IM like other
Sunni radicals support the Palestinians and they are unhappy with
increasingly close ties between India and Israel.

American media that just parrot notorious thug, Israeli Foreign
Minister Avigdor Lieberman in this unlikely allegation are allowing
themselves to be used for propaganda. Why not interview Indian
authorities on this matter? They are on the ground and have excellent
forensic (“CSI”) abilities. Stop being so lazy and blinkered; that isn’t
journalism.

I found my "Blue Falcon" in here so now we both know. ;) The Information war is a double edged sword and your team is on the wrong side of His-Story, the difference is, I have nothing to lose exposing fact's, on the other hand, you do, it's called control.

I'm signing off here soon, so I will be getting more aggressive with the counter dis-information campaign, try to keep up. Photobucket (252 jpg's of GZ) are next so monitor closley, it's going to sting a bit.

I am from Thailand. The four perptrators were Iranian citizens who entered Thailand on tourist visas arranged by travel agents in Tehran, where they picked up their visas. One of the four has escaped to...iran...the other was captured in Malaysia on the way to...iran...The other two are in custody, although one of the bombers is a little shorter now than he was a few days ago. So your obvious conclusion is: bombers from iran, bombers iranian, bombers come from iran, bombers attempt to escape back to iran, therefore they must be israel or the usa.

Zero Hedge should start a second website called Zero Brain to put all the conspiracy theory and left wing kooks content there so the people following the investment and quantative posts dont have to be annoyed by these ridiculous stories.

By the way, how about an update on those "huge" oil vents bigger than the BP spill you were warning us about last year. What's the latest on those? I am not hearing about any oil lately. Maybe the cia or israel have covered it up?

Indian government investigators tentatively think it was the Indian Mujahadin, NOT Iranian-backed.

Indian officials denied Tuesday that the bombing would affect trade ties. (Logical because no evidence points to Iran.)
Indian investigators are first rate. Based on the modus operandi, their initial thesis is that the attack was the work of the “Indian Mujahidin” group. [Cole is right.]

The highly influential Brookings Institution wrote a report in 2009 called “Which Path to Persia?” which states (pages 84-85):

It would be far more preferable if the United
States could cite an Iranian provocation as justification for the
airstrikes before launching them. Clearly, the more outrageous, the more
deadly, and the more unprovoked the Iranian action, the better off the
United States would be.

Of course, it would be very difficult for the United States to goad
Iran into such a provocation without the rest of the world recognizing
this game, which would then undermine it. (One method that would have
some possibility of success would be to ratchet up covert regime change
efforts in the hope that Tehran would retaliate overtly, or even
semi-overtly, which could then be portrayed as an unprovoked act of
Iranian aggression.)

A number of very high-level former intelligence officers – including
several that personally briefed presidents every day on matters of
national security – stated that better communications between the U.S. and Iran were needed to “reduce the danger of … covert, false-flag attack”

Nov.21.2008 - Obama's Chief of Staff is directly quoted (by the WSJ) as saying, "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste".. along with "...crisis provides the opportunity for us to do things that you could not do before."

«We have full confidence that the great principles of humanity and justice enunciated by your government [the u.s.] will in the day of peace extend their blessings towards Persia, as one of the countries which has endured long years of manifold trials with patience and long suffering.»

letter of October 5 1918, to the Secretary of State, the Iranian chargé d’affaires in Washington, Mirza Ali-Qoli-Khan

••

"The Persian Minister at Washington has stated orally that British companies are working to acquire oil concessions in the northern provinces, but that his government would prefer to grant these concessions to American rather than to other foreign interests."

I can say "I worked for General Wesley Clark" and provide links to arcane and absurd stuff and watch people go all willy-nilly over it.

I'm certain false-flag events have occurred in the past. I'm certain the CIA has backed imposters to provoke particular outcomes and events. I'm certain many things I don't like have happened with the support of the US gov't, but also that other nations have done the same kinds of things, and usually much worse.

But I think much of the stuff I read here is so outlandish and absurd that it's just entertainment, not information. It's the only reason I read it, really.

Ed Asner is hanging out with Navy SEALs? Maybe trained Navy seals balancing balls on their noses, but not SEALs who spend weeks and months training to perform that which they do. More to the point, since I actually do know a few former SEALs, none of them are likely to speak about what they do. Especially with Ed Asner, who most consider a buffoon. If they did share 'information', I'm sure it was to make him look like the silly nitwit he is.

And Chirac saying that Bush shared some kind of apocalyptic vision and desire is....well....stupid. Honestly, it's just ridiculous. I had the good fortune to work at Number One Observatory Circle during the period of time Bush was VP. Junior was there quite a bit. It's true he's got some 'religion', but suggesting he believes in an apocalyptic end similar to Revelation is odd. It doesn't mesh with anything I ever saw. The idea that he'd share that idea with Chirac, but not anyone else is funny, to say the least. He's actually a very honest, intelligent man who has been poorly characterized by the press. He's not your average run of the mill redneck Christian wacko, as you describe.

Is it possible he was a puppet while in office? Sure, others with more forceful personalities could have manipulated him early on. But the idea that he fell in with a crew trying to bring on Armageddon? wow.

Now I'm not saying there won't be a war, or that a false flag event might spark it. But really, the links to the nutjob tinfoil hat stuff isn't 'proof' of anything except that on the internet, nobody knows you're a dog. Thus, I can build a website that discusses all the crazy stuff I saw while I was in college, link it to larger conspiracies involving the media personalities I actually went to classes with (and I did), and then show it all as 'proof' that some kind of large scale manipulation of the population is taking place based on conspiracies that started 30 years ago in a college library.

Give it a rest. I'm a Ron Paul supporter. But when stuff gets stupid like this, I start understanding why people laugh at his supporters.

You know what I find humorous Inspector Bird? That people only question information from alternative news sites. But when the information comes from parroting douche-bag reporters from 3-letter propaganda outlets, well its god's honest truth isn't it. Because the reverend Al Sharpton gives me nothing but the plain simple facts-he wouldn't lie to me, he's on TV. Obviously everything on the internet is not true, but where there's smoke...there's fire. Instead of trying to resolve this information in your brain based on your own personal paradigm, maybe you should just follow the evidence and sees where it leads. The point is, you shouldn't make assumptions about things you know nothing about. As far as Ed Asner is concerned, maybe he is full of crap and maybe he isn't, but you certainly don't know him so don't pretend to know what your talking about.

Oh damn! The jig is up, your right. I just know this shit because I travel the intranets super highways looking for really compelling stories to post right here @ ZH. Damn, I'm found out! What gave me away? It had to be the White Pages wasn't it? It's all bullshit untill you hear it on the news, I know.

I don't trust anyone, in particular some DB who posts on the internet.

A troll is a troll is a troll, and finding a link on the internet is the easiest thing to do. Lord knows I can find one that tells you the sky is red. Doesn't make it so, unless you trust everything you read on the internet.

I suppose just because these links all tell a story and you nitwits can weave a believable enough web of deceit, you can make it seem like the founding fathers were really just orangutans who escaped from a ship. Again, doesn't mean it's true, but gosh, the internets have links that make it so.

I'm not interested in believing something because Dan Rather says it, or because some DB on ZH says it. There is a level of common sense that comes into play, and eventually reality is breached. So much of this garbage actually breaches that point, it's actually funny. Especially your lame response.

I'm not out to 'expose' anyone, so no jig is up. But I love how people post nonsense and make themselves out to be so damn self-righteous and knowledgeable on this crap.

You know what the truth is? Shit happens, dude, and sometimes it's manipulated, and sometimes it's coincidental. There is no worldwide conspiracy that has weaved a nasty web for hundreds of years to lead us to an apocalypse or anything else. JFK was murdered by the mob, who then killed Indira Gandhi because Jimmy Hoffa was buried in the wrong endzone after he got Congress to raise the minimum wage and Wall Street was really angry about this. Go to xyz.com, the links there prove it all!

And if you believe that there some worldwide conspiracy, pointing the finger to idiots here in the US is fine, except that you forget that similar idiots exist elsewhere. Ahmadinejad is on the record as believing in "The Mahdi", which is for him a similar insanity to anyone in Christiandom believing in the Apocalypse. So I suppose the best solution to his insanity is to just leave him alone?

Honestly - I don't know the answer to that question. It's rhetorical. But it's also funny that in the midst of drawing up the conspiracies here in the US, you people give such short shrift to nonsense that happens elsewhere. I suppose it's because the freedoms we have here give conspiracy theories more 'evidence' than in nations with restricted access.

When I come to the comments section, usually it's because it's late, I'm bored, and I love seeing people who take this stuff so seriously. Oh my God - something's broken on the internet and thank God you nitwits are here to fix it and make us all more edumacated.

In the end, I have to stop getting bored and coming to places like this. But it is easy to see why people don't take Ron Paul seriously, because if any of this tripe you post were true, then there are better ways to get the truth out to the populace than making a guy like him seem like wacko by supporting him with tinfoil hat theories.

Cool, this stuff is very normal to me in respect to what I used to do for a living, if you review my history here you can figure it out. I know alot of people don't want to discuss topics like the third rail stuff we touch on and personally, I really don't take alot of pleasure reviewing them, I just find the irony gets soo thick you can cut it with a knife and say to yourself, "Holy shit! I heard about that X amount of years ago and here it is comming to pass". Kinda mind blowing sometimes to learn they do have a strict adhearace to their game plan, little on the late side, but comming to pass regaurdless.

If approached with an open mind, 2+2 starts making 4 real quick. I had a hard time in the past wrapping my mind around alot of inconvienient truths, but I learned the hard way that all is not what it seems. My time is running short and I just let it fly at will lately.

That makes perfectsense.Afghanistan is a training ground.Who would have thought?Now I understand why the US is there.Was Iraq a training ground or was it for the oil or both?It comes around full circle.Too many people put too much thought into these situations.

Here is another interesting de-classified false flag white paper for you G.W. Read page 5 and 6. Then read the whole "War" plan from front to back. Never again will anyone not believe in state sponsored terrorism again. It's the smoking gun for the bay of pig's.

Goddam canadians- I had no idea they were stockpiling weapons for a likely invasion. We'd better go get them (and their oil and energy) before a mushroom cloud hovers over one of our cities. Those fucks in vancouver would love to nuke Boston. Did you see them after the stanley Cup loss? Frightening. Goddam terrorists.

Iran is a fucked up country, but that don't make the US any less guilty. And vice-versa. Sociopaths vs Lunatics, Fanatics vs. Fanatics, Narcissits vs. Psychos....the question is who's who at this stage....

If you want to know what's really going on over there watch these two videos. You will be amazed. Wesley Clark and an ex Navy Seal tell it like it is. This has been in the works for a long time. And you and I are paying for this insanity.

Wait just a cotton picking minute!! Barry got the Noble Peace Prize because of all the wonderful things he was "going to do". Don't you remember? So there is NO WAY he would be doing anything under-handed

Wait just a cotton picking minute!! Barry got the Noble Peace Prize because of all the wonderful things he was "going to do". Don't you remember? So there is NO WAY he would be doing anything under-handed

No problem, The one thing I would like to point out is this, we knew Iran was going to Chair OPEC by 2011 and it shuttered alot of top officials to the core. It's simply their turn. I'm sure you heard McCain on the campaign trail singing "Bomb Bomb Iran and such? I have worked on plenty of Presidential Campaigns before, but nothing like that circus.

Wolfowit's and his merry band of globalist including Mr. CFR John Bolton were desperate to ensure the Bush family friends, Saudi Arabia would maintain some semblance of oil trade when the time comes to pass. Too late, Kish Island is open for buissness and they will strong arm every petro based economy into submission. That's their "Nuclear weapon" The ultimate WMD.

Will not accept the worlds reserve currency aka the Petro Dollar aka USD for transactions. They cut a huge contract with China and India recently for their energy requirements = war.

Soo, they knew this over 7 years ago? Wow, they must be psychics. Can't say I didn't tell you.

This paste is from the headline article in the link if your too lazy to click it.

"The Iranians are about to commit an "offense" far greater than Saddam Hussein's conversion to the euro of Iraq’s oil exports in the fall of 2000. Numerous articles have revealed Pentagon planning for operations against Iran as early as 2005. While the publicly stated reasons will be over Iran's nuclear ambitions, there are unspoken macroeconomic drivers explaining the Real Reasons regarding the 2nd stage of petrodollar warfare - Iran's upcoming euro-based oil Bourse."

And what did Iran just do? They opened up a Euro based basket of currency Oil Bourse on Kish Island. Nuff said. I won't get nasty like you want me too, I'm too disiplined for that childish nonsense, Next? Because I'm hearing crickets in here.

What is a global military empire for anyway? What value do the American People get from such huge expense? For one thing, we get to buy oil in our own fuckin' currency. Iran threatens that arrangement by racing to acquire nuclear weapons? The US can not allow Iran to get the power it seeks. Iran has to die.